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TheMidnightFrogs
TheMidnightFrogs were an amateur comedic-writing and abridging team, headed by Mugiwara Yoshi and ThornBrain. Their primary projects were their productions of Sgt Frog Abridged and Tamers Abridged, though they also made one-shots and other parody videos. The name is based on the Sgt Frog series, and because early-on in the team's lifetime they came up with a majority of their funniest material very late at night. Team Bulge Bomb was a sister group, headed by ThornBrain with MidnightFrogs voice actors BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate. TheMidnightFrogs also have a Let's Play/Retsupurae channel under the name TheStrawhatNO!, now the primary project of Thorn and Yoshi. Following 2016, the team went on indefinite hiatus with no plans to return to abridging. However they made the surprise announcement in January 2020 of the official release of The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie in February for the series' 10th anniversary. Members Main Staff *ThornBrain - Lead writer, Voice actor, Video editor, Voice director, Site and channel manager *JigglyJacob - Voice actor, Lead writer (SFA Season 3-on) *Mugiwara Yoshi - Lead writer (SFA1R through SFA16), Voice actor *BigTUnit1 - Voice actor, Guest Writer (SFA9 - SFA11, SFA2, SFA15), Lead writer (SFA17 onward) *LillyLivers - Voice actor, Guest writer (SFA6) *codeblackhayate - Voice actor *InfamousGentleman - Voice actor, Guest writer (Tamers Abridged, SFA Season 3) *Sawtooth - Voice actor *King Theo - Artist, Mascot *Spacerkid - Voice actor Guest Cast and Crew Key: * is for Tamers Abridged characters *xJerry64x - Voice of Animator (SFA8), Giovanni *1KidsEntertainment - Voice of Sumomo, Animator (SFA8) *LordMoonstone - Voice of Shooter *MrFailGame - Voice of Mutsumi Saburo (SFA18) *Xcaliborg - Voice of Ocelot (SFA19), Kazu* *an-artist-complex - Artist (TheMidnightFrogs Podcast, Jetters Abridged), Writer (SFA21 - SFA23) *ShadowKitten91 - Voice of Jeri*, Riley*, Calumon* *EmmaAndstuff - Voice of Talley* *ShazMyBot - Voice of Dokuku (SFA20) Former Cast and Crew *DFatman - Writer (SFA1R), SFA title sequence and theme (SFA1R and SFA2R); Voice of Corporal Giroro and Mutsumi Saburo (SFA1R) **Sacked before Episode 2R was completed. *GhostTC - Voice of Sergeant Major Kululu (SFA2R and SFA3R) **Left the team near the end of November 2010. *RenegadeFaith - Voice of Angol Mois (SFA2R) **Removed before Episode 5. *Revy Moonshine - Voice of Koyuki Azumaya (SFA4 - SFA18), occasional bit characters **Retired from voice acting before SFA21. *Dobuchu - Voice of Momoka and Poyon (SFA10 - SFA25) Videos Sgt Frog Abridged [[Sgt Frog Abridged#Episode Listing|Main article: Sgt Frog Abridged Episode Listing]] Tamers Abridged [[Tamers Abridged#Episode Listing|Main article: Tamers Abridged Episode Listing]] One-Shots, Spin-Offs and Stand-Alone Videos *Really Shit Drawings of a Japanese Pokemon Thing by MYTB ROCK ON HOMIES (April 18, 2010) - Yoshi and Thorn's parody of BMNC's MSPaint parodies of Sgt Frog, though using Pokemon instead. Makes fun of BMNC's tendency to use Japanese words in otherwise English dialogue, the use of outdated internet memes, Windows Movie Maker, and the bad voice actors who auditioned for her series. *''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' (June 14, 2010) - Abridging of a one-episode Pokemon special made to promote the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. Makes heavy use of the team's absurdist tendencies. *''Best Wishes Abridged'' (November 25, 2010) - Abridging of the first two episodes of Pokemon: Best Wishes, the then-most recent season of the Pokemon anime. Is heavily satirical of the anime and its tropes/cliches. *''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged: Fire Red Version'' (June 14, 2014) - Remake and rewrite of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged. *''How I Caught Your Mother'' (June 30, 2016) - One-shot of Pokemon Origins episode 2, created for Team Four Star's TIBA abridging contest. Ultimately placed #7. April Fool's *'2010': Paper Abridged - Thorn records himself with his webcam folding a piece of paper. *'2011': Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged - Thorn dubs a pastor reading a bizarre, surreal piece written by the groom at a wedding, with occasional shouting by Yoshi as audience members. *'2012': Crash Abridged - A short YouTube Poop combining footage from the short film adaptation of the JG Ballard novel Crash with "54321 and Rock and Roll and Go" by Japanese Dance Rock band The Jerry Lee Phantom. *'2013': Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1 Remastered - SFA1 redubbed with all of the characters' voices switched. *'2014': SAHNIK - A parody of Sonic X episode 1, based largely on the team's Sonic-based inside jokes. It was initially uploaded to YouTube under the name Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged - Episode 2, making it an actual prank on viewers who wanted a second episode. Meet the Frogs Thorn interviews the members of TheMidnightFrogs about their personal projects and involvement in the team. *InfamousGentleman (Jpace92) *LillyLivers *Revy Moonshine *codeblackhayate *BigTUnit1 *JigglyJacob (TheSmashBro) *MrVorhias Creator Commentaries Commentaries of SFA episodes and one-shots. *''SFA Episode 1R Commentary'' - November 9, 2010 *''SFA Episode 2R Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''PMDA Commentary'' - November 10, 2010 *''SFA Episode 3R Commentary'' - March 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 4 Commentary'' - March 28, 2011 *''SFA Episode 5 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 6 Commentary'' - June 27, 2011 *''SFA Episode 7 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 8 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 9 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''SFA Episode 10 Commentary'' - October 21, 2011 *''BWA Commentary'' - March 30, 2012 *''SFA Episode 11 Commentary'' - December 21, 2012 *''SFA Episode 12 Commentary'' - December 21, 2012 *''SFA Episode 13 Commentary'' - December 22, 2012 *''SFA Episode 14 Commentary'' - December 22, 2012 *''SFA Episode 15 Commentary'' - December 23, 2012 *''SFA Episode 16 Commentary'' - December 23, 2012 *''SFA Episode 17 Commentary'' - December 24, 2012 *''SFA Episode 18 Commentary'' - December 24, 2012 *''SFA: Reset Commentary'' - August 14, 2015 *''SFA Episode 19 Commentary'' - April 30, 2017 *''SFA Episode 20 Commentary'' - May 1, 2017 *''SFA Episode 21 Commentary'' - May 2, 2017 *''SFA Episode 22 Commentary'' - May 3, 2017 *''SFA Episode 23 Commentary'' - May 4, 2017 *''SFA Episode 24 Commentary'' - May 6, 2017 *''SFA Episode 25 Commentary'' - May 6, 2017 Thorn Solo Commentaries Thorn commentating the episodes solo on his personal channel, excluding solo commentaries on TheMidnightFrogs channel. *''SFA1R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA2R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA3R'' - March 31, 2012 *''SFA4'' - June 8, 2013 *''PMDA'' - June 8, 2013 Gag Reels *''Gag Reel #1'' - SFA1® - SFA5, PMDA, BWA *''Gag Reel #2'' - SFA6 - SFA10 *''Gag Reel #3'' - SFA1 - SFA3 remakes, SFA11 - SFA15 *''Gag Reel #4'' - SFA16 - SFA18 *''Gag Reel #5'' - SFA: Reset, SFA19 and SFA20, Ask GiroDoro Season 1, Tamers Abridged Episode 1 *''Gag Reel #6'' - PMDA: Fire Red, Tamers Abridged Episode 2, SFA21 - SFA23 *''Gag Reel #7'' - SFA24 - SFA25 Boston Vlogs Thorn's video journals of trips to Boston, mainly for the Anime Boston convention. *Boston 2012: **Part 1: Arrival and Con Registration **Part 2: Anime Boston Day 1 **Part 3: Drunk Guy Sings the Classics **Part 4: Vorhias, Alicia, Lilly, and a SLUT **Part 5: One Last Road Trip (The End) *Bosto- er... Lowell 2013 *Boston 2014: **Part 1: First Arrivals **Part 2: The Jacob Show LIVE **Part 3: First Day of Anime Boston **Part 4: Fabulous Shopping **Part 5: Snake Falls in Reverse Trailers/Promos Most of the following is from TheMidnightFrogs' first year, when they made trailers for the original first two SFA episodes, sometimes made original promos shortly before new Abridging one-shots were completed, to announce a new Abridging project, or for their non-MidnightFrogs work. *SFA Episode 1 Teaser - Dr Freud - Brief clip from Episode 1R with a new, follow-up joke caption. It hinted at a running joke involving Natsumi, which would be dropped by Season 2. **The trailer was deleted May 8, 2011 in preparation for the Episode 1 remake the following month. Thorn also deleted the trailer from his computer, and he has no intention of remaking it to reupload to his archive channel like other old videos. *Pikmin Let's Play Trailer - To promote the then-new Let's Play by Yoshi and Thorn on FATLPs, Yoshi sings his own translation of the Japanese Pikmin-based song "Ai no Uta" ("Song of Love") to footage of the game. The song ends abruptly as a team of yellow Pikmin accidentally blow themselves up. **No longer available to view publicly. *SFA Episode 2 Promo - Keroro is playing an incomprehensible board game by himself while pretending to be his crew members. The video was made while SFA2R was held back due to Momoka's voice actor problems, and the team wanted the episode to be done but were unable to continue. **The video was also taken down in preparation for the Episode 2 remake, but it was reuploaded to Thorn's archive channel. *Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged promo - Charmander very quickly and very vaguely describes the events that unfold in the video, focusing mainly on Squirtle. When the narration is through, Charmander and Squirtle are properly introduced as characters. ThornBrain then announces the PMDA project and its release date. *''Best Wishes Abridged promo'' - Audio-only promo for Best Wishes Abridged, aired at the end of the "Oh Planet Earth" podcast. It was made in the style of a radio commercial for a movie, with the narrator setting up the video and Ash Ketchum interjecting with one-liners. *"Something comes tonight" - Promotional trailer for the premiere of Tamers Abridged. It establishes the series' framing device of it airing on a small TV station in the middle of nowhere, and it introduces the station's resident VJ's (voiced by Thorn and Yoshi). It was the first trailer from the team for a project since the Best Wishes Abridged promo over three years earlier. *''TheStrawhatNO! Let's Plays - A First for Everything'' - Promotional clip reel for TheStrawhatNO!: Thorn, Yoshi and Travis' Let's Play channel, showing their LPing style through some of the funniest moments from their LPs. The video is also uploaded to TheStrawhatNO! as a channel introduction. *''A Beginner's Guide to Sgt Frog Abridged (Seasons 1-2)'' - Introductory clip reel for new viewers that shows the main cast, significant/defining moments for their characters, and the sense of humour/writing style of the overall series. Other *Thorn's YouTube Poop Retrospective Stream - Live hangout stream of Thorn sharing his old YouTube Poops from 2008-2010. The stream spurned him on to make more YouTube Poops starting in February 2016. *SFA's Miscellaneous Files live stream + A look at Thorn's editing process - Live hangout stream of Thorn sharing the miscellaneous files related to TheMidnightFrogs and SFA that he'd collected over the team's first six years, and he spends the last 48 minutes showing his video editing process and giving tips. JigglyJacob co-commentates. *Thorn's Top 10 Albums of 2016 & YTP Retrospective - Live New Year's 2017 hangout stream of Thorn listing his Top 10 Albums of 2016 and a retrospective of his YouTube Poops since returning to them earlier that February. Song Parodies and Originals Parodies *"Tamama's Titties" - A very old, pre-SFA1R parody of The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine", based on an inside joke between the team of a typo by DFatman. The song was written and primarily sung by ThornBrain, backed by Yoshi and Fatman to a karaoke version of the song. It was never released to the public until May 2014. *"A Pekoponian Day in the Life" - Parody of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life". The music is a karaoke version of the original song. *"Pretty Girl's All Mine" - Parody of Chris Isaak's "Pretty Girls Don't Cry". The music is performed by Thorn. *"The Lonely Dance" - Parody of Men Without Hats' "The Safety Dance", with Thorn singing as Dororo to a karaoke version of the original song, with brief reactions by Revy Moonshine as Koyuki. *''A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)'' - features parodies of several Christmas carols and standards, as sung by various SFA characters. *"The Valentine's Parody" - Parody of Billy Joel's "The Longest Time, with Yoshi singing to a karaoke version of the original, backed occasionally by Thorn. *"Look at Your Boobs" - Parody of "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. Never completed, but sections appeared in SFA19 and SFA24. *"Friendship" - Parody of "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman from Toy Story. with BigTUnit1 singing nonsense to a karaoke version of the original. Appeared in SFA24. *"Come and Catch Your Love" - Parody of "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone, with Yoshi singing to a karaoke version of the original, backed occasionally by Thorn and LillyLivers. Appeared in the credits for How I Caught Your Mother. Originals *"Stroke in the Sun" - written by Thorn and Travis, performed by Thorn. Song is in an oldies/Rock & Roll style with a Death Metal bridge, inspired by The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, and Napalm Death. Unreleased *"Dr. Tamama" - Parody of BrentalFloss' with-lyrics parody of the Dr. Mario theme. Written shortly after "Tamama's Titties" but never recorded. Podcast Main article: TheMidnightFrogs Podcast TheMidnightFrogs Podcast was hosted by Thorn with an alternating list of TheMidnightFrogs' team members, broadcasted primarily on Ustream, and is archived on MediaFire. Full details are in the podcast's main article. TheMidnightFrogs Podcast is an offshoot of the team's original podcast, Fatty Time. The team began TheMidnightFrogs Podcast when they split from DFatman. History 2000's: Pre-Formation 250px|frame|border|TheMidnightFrogs' original logo by DFatman, used from January 2010 to November 2013 Before Sgt Frog Abridged, Yoshi and Thorn were random YouTubers in high school. Thorn had tried his hand at comics, fanfics, ranting, reviewing music, and making YouTube Poops, but nothing had stuck with him. Yoshi tried writing fanfics, making AMVs, and other various things, but he mostly just wanted to get out of high school. Thorn graduated high school in May 2009 and took the following year off before going into college, freeing up the time he would eventually devote to starting SFA. Sometime in 2009, Mugiwara Yoshi, (then going by SMSYoshi) became a fan of Sgt Frog and wanted to watch an abridged series of it. He found that there were no good existing abridged series, so he decided to try his hand at making his own. That July, he requested help on a possible Sgt Frog Abridged in the UStream chat of the Wha-Chow! podcast. Among the people interested were ThornBrain, DFatman and GhostTC. Some of them exchanged Skype contacts, but nothing solid occurred. The following October and November, Thorn and Fatman became friends and began doing Let's Plays together as FATLPs. That December, Yoshi bought his first microphone and joined them, all the while beginning planning on their Sgt Frog Abridged. Thorn asked to be the third writer, to which Yoshi agreed, thus establishing the original main trio of the team, (though Thorn and Yoshi wouldn't "click" as friends or partners until the following month). That same day, they set up their first podcast, Fatty Time, and GhostTC joined up as a voice actor two weeks later. Fatman suggested naming the team "TheMidnightFrogs"; the team and account were officially founded on January 2, 2010, just shortly after deciding on the moniker. The core three put together their first audition video asking for voice actors on New Year's Day 2010. Note': almost none of the people who auditioned would stay with them for/past Episode 1R, and all of them would be gone by Episode 10. *''Other articles related to this era'': **Tamama Tits'' **Dorodo' **Kemama'' **''Category:Pre-Sgt Frog Abridged'' 2010 Growing Pains (Episode 1, 2, the Momoka fiasco, and the split from Fatman) After a month-long period of fluctuating voice actors, during which current staple LillyLivers joined up, scriptwriting began on [[Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 1R|Episode 1 of SFA]]. The episode was completed and uploaded on February 16, and the series quickly began developing a fan base thanks to word-of-mouth noting the series' uniqueness and potential. Fatman had already written Episode 2's script while lines were being recorded, though the original draft would be rewritten by Thorn and Yoshi due to them disliking it. Lines were recorded, but Thorn discovered in March that the script and lines did not fit with the source video. He and Yoshi wrote a third script without Fatman, though episode production would continue to be held back until June as the team searched for a voice for Momoka. The two were quickly growing tired of working with and being around Fatman. They finally split from him on April 12, two days after the script for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged was finalized. They left Fatty Time and FATLPs to him, and began TheMidnightFrogs Podcast and TheStrawhatNO! in their place. The team cycled through a few Momoka voice actors for nearly four months, excluding the many they attempted to contact offering the voice, before finally asking LillyLivers. During the search, Thorn and Yoshi wrote a promo video for Episode 2 to keep viewers interested. The episode was completed on June 9, 2010 and uploaded the following midnight. Note': Both Episodes 1 and 2 would go on to be disowned, retconned and remade in Summer 2011. They are now referred to as SFA1R and SFA2R, the "R" standing for "retconned". The remakes are discussed further below. The SFA2R promo was also set to unlisted at this time, but it is available for public viewing on Thorn's archive channel. *''Other articles related to this era:'' **Category:No Longer with TheMidnightFrogs'' **SFA2R - Staff Change' **Momoka's Curse'' ''Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged'' During production of Episode 2, Thorn and Yoshi began working on a secret project between just the two of them, which would become Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged. The project sat dormant until May when SFA2R's stagnation due to Momoka brought a renewed interest in PMDA. The video was edited at the same time as, and completed shortly after, SFA2R. It was uploaded June 14 to positive reception. The video was taken down by a DMCA, but it was reuploaded by a fan, and finally reinstated in December. ''Note: ''PMDA'' was later remade for its fourth birthday. ''SFA Episodes 3 and 4, Best Wishes Abridged Because Episode 3 was short it had the smoothest development of the series up to that point, with the script and editing being completed quickly and the lines being completed on time (Lilly and Ghost were the only VAs beside Thorn and Yoshi to appear). ''Note: due to the remakes of SFA1 and SFA2, SFA3 had a few plotholes and anachronisms that Thorn convinced Yoshi needed fixing. As such, a minor remake was released July 30, 2011.'' Episode 4 was completed and uploaded the night of October 23, 2010 to positive reception. It introduced Revy Moonshine to the series as Koyuki Azumaya, and it signaled LillyLivers becoming an honorary member of TheMidnightFrogs. Yoshi and Thorn consider the episode to be the point where the team's abilities as abridgers began to truly click. The script for a second secret project was completed on November 5, which was announced on November 20 as Best Wishes Abridged, then completed and released on Thanksgiving, November 25. BWA was arguably the most popular of any recent video of theirs, topped only by SFA Episode 1 in the number of "likes". It was taken down by Shopro numerous times through March; the team eventually decided to remove it from YouTube, and it was not reuploaded to YouTube until 2013 on Thorn's Archives. End of 2010, First year anniversary, and hiatus Episode 5 began scripting on December 4, 2010. GhostTC and RenegadeFaith were removed from the voices of Kululu and Mois respectively, and Thorn brought in Jpace92 and Codeblackhayate as their new VAs. SFA5 was completed and uploaded December 19, marking the halfway point for Season 1. To celebrate the halfway mark and the Christmas season, the first Gag Reel was uploaded on Christmas Eve, followed immediately by "A Christmas Special (It's special, alright)". With Episode 5 completed and the team's first year anniversary arriving with New Years, the team decided to take a hiatus from making videos. Thorn focused his time on recording his debut album, BlackholeWhitespace, for the now-defunct Futures Passed Free Music record label. The album was completed and released on January 31, 2011. Second half of SFA Season One, SFA's First Birthday Abridgers LordMoonstone and Xerostyle announced a January 2011 Abridging contest, which caused Yoshi and Thorn to decide to end their hiatus sooner than expected. The team began production of Episode 6 without giving any hints to their fans that they were doing so, and they included LillyLivers in the scriptwriting. The scripting began on January 10th, and the episode was finished and uploaded on the 23rd, breaking Episode 5's production time-record by two days. It was the team's favourite episode through the majority of the series, and it is one of their most popular episodes. When the contest winners were finally announced on September 9, 2011, SFA6 placed 9th out of 200 entries. The episode was released less than a month before SFA's first birthday on February 16, the anniversary of the upload of Episode 1R. A video was uploaded of Keroro announcing the birthday and asking for fans to send in their favorite jokes, characters, etc. The celebratory podcast was held on February 16, and it included all of the then-main cast members plus Sawooth. Jpace92, codeblackhayate, RevyMoonshine, and Sawtooth were all inducted as honorary MidnightFrogs at the show. 2011 and 2012 Episode 7 was released on February 19 to continued acclaim, expanding on Keroro, Giroro, and Dororo's childhood together, as well as Dororo and Giroro's relationship (which would become a recurring theme for the rest of the series). It was also the re-introduction of BigTUnit1 to the series after his previous appearance in Episode 4, and he would go on to be a growing presence in the series from then-on. After the Season 2 finale in 2012, Episode 7 was voted one of Thorn's, Yoshi's, and Travis' top 3 favourite episodes alongside 11 and 17. Episode 8 followed on March 23. Yoshi and Travis still like the episode while Thorn considers it to be one of the series' low points, admitting that the script was weak and that he and Yoshi didn't have many ideas. ''Jetters Abridged'', BigTUnit1 Joins the Writing Staff, SFA Season One finale Thorn began Jetters Abridged shortly after SFA8, a project he had been planning for since the founding of TheMidnightFrogs and discussed at length on some Fatty Time episodes. He founded Team Bulge Bomb with MidnightFrogs VAs BigTUnit1 and codeblackhayate and began making episodes alongside SFA. Due to his work in Jetters Abridged and because SFA8 was comparatively weaker than the previous two episodes, BigTUnit1 was brought in to co-write Episode 9. Thorn and Yoshi were so pleased with his contributions that he became a recurring writer for SFA. The episode was written in one night and was released April 17; it confused the majority of its audience, but it was still received very positively. Episode 10, the season one finale, was released on May 27 to acclaim (and shock due to the bizarre revelations made in the episode) from fans and great satisfaction from the team. The team announced a break from SFA through to July. Episode Remakes, TheMidnightFrogs Wiki In actuality, the team remade Episode 1 a month early without their fans' awareness. Because SFA1R was retconned, the new SFA1 completely replaced it in the series' timeline and continuity. They then remade Episode 2 and Episode 3 in July, which all followed suit in replacing their originals in the continuity. Though the fans and viewers generally liked the remakes, there was a small split in the fanbase with a minority preferring the originals. The remakes are currently the three most disliked episodes, and SFA3 gathered more dislikes alone than any other video on TheMidnightFrogs' channel. Since then, the originals have largely been forgotten and the remakes better liked. Thorn later set the originals to Unlisted after Season 2. This wiki was also created on July 7, 2011. Previously SFA episodes and team details were hosted on the Abridged Series Wiki. However Thorn wanted to make pages and give information about the team's other, non-abridging related projects such as TheMidnightFrogs Podcast and TheStrawhatNO!, and he had used Wikia variously for the last several years and knew how to use it well. So far it is one of the few Wikias used as a personal website rather than a fansite. Season 2, Mid-Season Turbulence, Second Hiatus Season 2 premiered on August 25, 2011 with Episode 11, which introduced Pururu and continued from where Episode 10 left off plot-wise and character-wise. It is the first episode to directly examine the series' recurring themes of sexual orientation, Thorn himself coming out during production as a bisexual transvestite (he has since altered this to nonbinary pansexual). The episode quickly gained high marks from viewers and fans, much higher than the remakes had received, and it was later voted one of Thorn, Yoshi, and Travis' favourite episodes of the series. Episode 12 was also well liked, expanding on Kululu's condition from Episode 11 and his character in the series. Before writing for Episode 13, Thorn and Yoshi began brainstorming for the season finale episodes so that they could better plan the rest of the season around them. They had so much fun doing so that when they got around to writing Episode 13, they had very few ideas and juggled three different possible episodes to be used. Eventually they settled on a Halloween special which introduced Alisa Southerncross and Black Nebula. The team agree that SFA13 is the series' worst episode, due in part to the lack of ideas and the resulting weak script. Episode 14 gave some backstory to Koyuki and Dororo, and is better-liked than SFA13 and established Dororo and Giroro as an official couple. Episode 15 was released Christmas Eve, featuring Giroro and Dororo's wedding as drawn by new team artist Tempe, and it was followed by the third Gag Reel. Due to exhaustion with the series and some dissatisfaction with the season, Thorn and Yoshi put the series and abridging in general on hiatus after SFA15. The two spent the next two months focusing on their Let's Plays. They would eventually return to the series in March 2012, writing Episode 16, which would be released after the April trip to Boston for the Anime Boston convention. Yoshi Steps Down, Series Finale Yoshi announced on the following podcast that he was stepping down as writer of SFA, giving creative control of the series to Thorn, though he would still remain as Keroro's voice actor. Some of Yoshi's material still remained in the script for SFA17, and a sudden spark of motivation to complete the series on a high note brought Yoshi back to script SFA18. Though Thorn said for a while that he would continue SFA in a different form (shorts, more song parodies, the movies), exhaustion and loss of motivation led him to make SFA18 the final episode. The series lived on briefly in the Ask GiroDoro audio blog. Thorn intended to move TheMidnightFrogs on to a Digimon Tamers series, but this idea was put on hiatus after little-to-no progress was made. (It would later be revived in October 2013) Thorn made the scriptwriting sessions for all of SFA, plus PMDA and BWA, available free to download. The infamous podcast post-shows, one of which birthed Mop, are also available to download. 2013 and 2014: Sgt Frog Abridged Revival 250px|thumb|TheMidnightFrogs logo by Teddy, November 2013 - Present An SFA reboot was announced on February 14, Sgt Frog Abridged: Reset, with Thorn providing a clarification video the day after: he would retain creative control and write the series with whoever was available at the time. Yoshi would not be returning as a writer, though he and the rest of the cast would keep their voice acting roles. The Reset special was released March 30, and the "SFA Returns" podcast further revealed details for Season 3. JigglyJacob was also inducted as an honorary MidnightFrog during the show, then-still going by "TheSmashBro". Episode 19 followed that August to an enthusiastic reception, and the Tamers Abridged project was revived in October 2013. The team commissioned a new logo from team artist Teddy shortly after Podcast 33, "Sonic!", with Teddy featuring as the official mascot. Thorn also released his second album, Nobody Cares Unless You're Pretty or Dying, on December 24. Tamers Abridged - Episode 1 was released on January 8, 2014, Jetters Abridged - Episode 6 on Valentine's Day, and Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 20 on March 24. Thorn and Yoshi had a fight on May 24. Their friendship remained intact, but because Thorn was nearly out of college and about to start a band, he decided to end TheMidnightFrogs as an abridging team; however he retracted this two days later when the other potential band members dropped out. The team continued into a remake of PMDA called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged: Fire Red Version, and Tamers Abridged - Episode 2. The team went on extended hiatus for the rest of 2014, focusing on TheStrawhatNO!, until the end of the year. 2015: Wrapping Up SFA Thorn and his then-girlfriend Olivia wrote SFA21 in April 2015, and it was released on the 27th. The episode continued the Shurara Corps arc and concluded the arc of Tamama's pregnancy. Ask GiroDoro was revived for a third season in August. Between episodes, Revy Moonshine stepped down as the voice of Koyuki, and the role was ultimately given to team friend Spacerkid. SFA22 was uploaded on August 31 after months of scriptwriting delays, with Travis, InfamousGentleman and JigglyJacob joining in the writing at various points. The second half of the script for it was split into SFA23, which followed on September 27 and featured HQ's single visual appearance. The episode concluded the series-spanning arc of HQ antagonizing the platoon. SFA24 was released in November with LillyLivers joining in the scriptwriting for the first time since Episode 6. Season 3 and the episodic series of SFA concluded on New Year's Eve with SFA25, going out on a much higher note personally and in-series than it did with Season 2. 2016: Indefinite Hiatus With SFA's episodic series completed, Thorn's focus was redirected to TheStrawhatNO!, with an occasional return to making YouTube Poops again after six years. Gag Reel #7 was uploaded in April. Thorn and JigglyJacob also began writing The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie. The team created another Pokemon one-shot, How I Caught Your Mother, based on Pokemon Origins episode 2 and released on June 30 for Team Four Star's TIBA contest and to celebrate the channel reaching 10,000 subscribers. While it was originally intended as the first episode in a four-part miniseries, the plan fell through when the team went on indefinite hiatus. As of 2017, TheMidnightFrogs essentially dissolved, and there were no plans for new uploads to the channel. 2019-2020: The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie Production resumed in secret on The Sgt Frog Abridged Movie in April 2019 with plans to release it on February 16, 2020 to celebrate Sgt Frog Abridged's 10th anniversary. Thorn, Yoshi and Jacob held a livestream of them rewatching Seasons 1 and 2 for TheMidnightFrogs' 10th anniversary on January 5, 2020, at the end of which they aired the final episodes of Ask GiroDoro, followed by a surprise trailer for the movie. Along with the movie, they have left the door open to more abridging in the future with Thorn, Yoshi and Jacob at the helm; Travis remains too busy with work. Other Trivia *Thorn believes that TheMidnightFrogs are behind-the-scenes pioneers of live voice acting direction in abridging. Starting in mid-2010, Thorn began directing their voice actors over Skype to speed up the video-making process, thereby allowing him to get the takes he wants outright and avoiding the need to re-record lines should they not work with the source video. Many of the long-established and prolific cast members (E.G.: LillyLivers, codeblackhayate) note that SFA was one of their first online voice acting roles with live direction - most online amateur voice acting is done alone and impersonally, relying on directions from the script or project heads, and is often a long-running process of sending in lines, waiting, and re-recording lines later. From 2011 on, many abridgers adopted live directing themselves, and it is now a common practice, though solo recording is also still common. *The team upheld an abridging streak of at least one video per month from October 2010 (starting with SFA4) to December 2011 (ending with SFA15). The streak included Best Wishes Abridged and the remakes of SFA1, SFA2 and SFA3. *''Sgt Frog Abridged: Reset'' is the only major video by the team (excluding solo projects and April Fool's videos) written by one person, in this case Thorn. *The most writers for any of the team's projects is five for SFA22, due to Thorn bringing in different people at different points to help the slow writing. Tamers 2, SFA23, and SFA24 are tied at second with four writers. Category:Team category:TheMidnightFrogs